Current Research

Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Fongoli Chimps of Senegal

I just stumbled upon this on Twitter (Thanks to DarwinMonkey). It's a National Geographic page about the Senegalese Fongoli chimps, named after the Fongoli stream that runs through the chimpanzee's range. There are videos showing these chimps using tools fishing for termites, hunting a bushbaby and taking baths. Mary Roach's field note-like article "Almost Human" offers readers an insight to what the daily life of a chimpanzee is like (the Fongoli chimps are savanna-woodlands chimp), the concept of "ecological intelligence" and innovative tool use by the Fongoli chimps that were suppose to be unique to humans.